Chief for Pacific Command Chosen

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: January 19, 2005

Adm. William J. Fallon has been selected by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to be the next head of the United States Pacific Command, the headquarters overseeing military relief operations for the tsunami disaster, Pentagon and administration officials said Tuesday.

Admiral Fallon, a former vice chief of naval operations who now heads the Navy's Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, Va., would replace Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, who will retire at the end of February.

Mr. Rumsfeld's choice is subject to the approval of President Bush and the Senate, but both steps are considered formalities in a process that would move Admiral Fallon to a command whose regional activities span 43 countries in the Pacific and South Asia.

As commander of American forces in the Pacific, Admiral Fallon would have overall responsibility for military planning and operations in two of the world's most serious potential flash points: the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Strait.

Mr. Bush's original choice to replace Admiral Fargo was Gen. Gregory S. Martin of the Air Force. But General Martin withdrew his name from consideration in December after a hearing at which Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, sharply criticized his close professional ties to a top Air Force official embroiled in a procurement scandal.

After that surprising turn of events, Pentagon officials said, Mr. Rumsfeld settled on Admiral Fallon for his operational experience, political skills and creative ideas on revamping the military for the 21st century to be a more agile and lethal force.

As commander of the Fleet Forces Command since October 2003, Admiral Fallon has been responsible for more than 200,000 sailors and officers, 250 ships and submarines, and 3,000 aircraft based on both coasts.

A native of Merchantville, N.J., Admiral Fallon, 60, has broad combat experience. He flew missions in the Vietnam War, commanded a carrier air wing in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, and four years later led the naval battle group supporting NATO operations in Bosnia.

In 2000, Admiral Fallon became vice chief of naval operations, a job that catapulted him into the international spotlight a year later when the submarine Greeneville collided with a Japanese fishing school trawler, the Ehime Maru, near Hawaii, killing nine crew members, four of them teenage students.

Three weeks after the accident, Admiral Fallon flew to Japan as Mr. Bush's envoy to apologize to the victims' families.